The Healthy Blog

Has this ever happened to you? You receive an email to download a report, you click the link, it opens a new window and a completely blank screen appears and says: “Plugin blocked”. Bother! (Sound familiar?)

This exact scenario happened to me recently. Settle in for the story and some helpful tips on client journey mapping.

I met Ariel* a few years ago through a mutual friend. Ariel* runs a marketing and branding business. Recently she started sending out newsletters for her revamped business. She had my email so added me to her list. Some of the information is interesting and helpful so I’ve stayed on her list.**

Last week she sent out an email with a link to a downloadable pdf. It sounded interesting so I clicked on the link; it opened in a new window and said: “We are having difficulty, try back later”. So I did, I tried back a couple of days later and that’s when I got that pesky “Plugin blocked” page. Hhhhmmm.

Here is my first learning point from Ariel*:

I too have a business that depends on clients and prospectives being able to access downloadable documents, watch videos, respond to online questionnaires and other documents.What if some of my links aren’t working? What if my people are not able to access material that I willingly share and make available for information? How would I know?

I decided to email Ariel*, not so much because I wanted a copy of the pdf download, more because I have met her, she’s running an online business and I do care about both her as a person and about her being successful in her business.

So I sent her an email: “Just wanted to let you know …”and a brief summary of the situation. Her reply: “Thanks for letting me know, much appreciated. I’ll hand it over to the tech people.”

At this point I’m not quite sure what I expected. This had me thinking about how I handle similar issues? And I’m curious, how might you handle this situation?

The next email I received from her said:“My IT guy says it must be your settings. See his email following …… ”and she included the IT guy’s email which said simply:“I’ve tested on Firefox, Safari, Explorer and it works all fine for me. Maybe she needs to check her system settings.”

And that is the end of our interaction. Full stop. End of story. #unhelpful

Here is my second learning point from Ariel*:

I’m left unsure which settings I need to check. I don’t have the copy of the downloadable pdf and I’m not sure if I’ll ever receive a copy,andI’m not sure how I feel about this exchange. It’s not really a big deal, I already have tonnes of reading…but regardless it was annoying.

One of my lovely subscribers sent me this hilarious YouTube video (2min 20 sec), which still makes me laugh out loud!! #hopelessTechSupport

Back to business…….What do you think? How might you handle a similar approach from a client?

This is an example of a part of a Client Journey Map. Client Journey Mapping is something I come back to over and over – in my own business and with my clients. Ensuring your clients and prospective clients receivethe best possible serviceas they move through the various interactions with you and your business is a constant work in progress –in every business.

Do we all get it right all the time? No, of course we don’t.

The question then is, what do we do when things don’t go the way our clients expect? What do we do when things go awry? How do we handle that?

What happens when we try to recover a service situation?

The statistics show over and again that when a mistake or mishap is recovered in a satisfactory manner, that client or customer can becomeup to 10 times more loyalas a result of having their problem solved, than they might have been to merely experience your regular service.

How this might play out in the real world is that a satisfied client might tell a few people about you and your business. A client who has something go wrong which is efficiently resolved and fixed to their satisfaction,they tell 10 times more people. Yes, 10 times!

This is good for business!

Right now Ariel* may very well be working on a solution to my download issue. However the response from her IT guy does not fill me with confidence that I’ll be receiving a new link or an attached PDF doc anytime soon.

Having this happen to me makes me immediately want to check every aspect of all touch points in each client journey in my business, including downloads etc.

One solution for my first learning point:

One of the systems that I have put into place is to regularly check the various touch points in my business. I like to do this at least every fortnight. It’s scheduled into my workflow because when we put it in our schedule – it happens!!

Action for you: What systems do you have in place to ensure all your links and downloads etc are working as you want them to?

One solution for my second learning point:

Examine the client journey maps for situations that may not work as planned andcreate recovery mapsto deliver client solutions. I must make time to review my own “recovery plan” for when things don’t work.

Action for you: How do you respond when you receive feedback from your clients about things not working the way they expect? If you don’t have a “recovery plan” it might be time to think about implementing one.

In this Library, there is a tonne of information including webinars, worksheets and downloadable templates. There is a specific worksheet to assist you to identify and map your client journey. For a small monthly fee you have unlimited access to a tonne of great resources, including all my webinars.

And better still you can learn from the comfort of your own lounge chair in your own time!

Finally, has anything like this story ever happened to you? I’d love to hear it, and the outcome of what it was that worked and/or didn’t work. Did you ever get your downloadable pdf OR is it still missing in cyberspace? 😉

We learn from doing, from taking action and refining. Always refining. Have a terrific week and let’s go take care of our great clients and customers…..

If you are thinking about starting your own business you may be interested to take our Business StartUp Readiness Quiz, click here to take the quiz.

“So You Want to Start a Pilates Business” is an online program especially for Pilates Instructors who are keen to create their own studio. While it says Pilates in the title this program covers Business and Marketing Basics for anyone starting a business in any of the health and wellness professions: Yoga Studio, Dance School and all businesses related to Acupuncture, Nutrition, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Chiropractic, Osteopath, Kinesiology and other similar modalities…..

Do you need help starting and growing your business? Please give me a call on 0450 212 887 or email me at training@healthynumbers.com.au